confused about hosts

For some reason I was led to believe I had to have a Bluehost account IN ADDITION to Word Press to get my website up and running. I paid for it. Can I discontinue service with them or are they part of WordPress? Domain was registered with go daddy and I was going to get a fancy website theme through Photocrati... maybe they told me to use Bluehost.

There are two "flavors" of WordPress. WordPress.com (this site) and WordPress.org, which is the "self-hosted" version.

If you're happy with WordPress.com, you do not need a BlueHost account. Keep reading, though.

If you want to use themes that aren't listed on WordPress.com (list at http://theme.wordpress.com/ ) or want to use any "WordPress plugins", you'll need the self-hosted version on wordpress.org, which will need some type of hosting account. BlueHost is one of many such providers.

For the theme you mentioned specifically, it appears that you'll need the self-hosted version at WordPress.org (which is free, except for the cost of hosting).

It's difficult to say which you should choose without knowing more about what you need. If you need to embed iframes, javascript, or lots of flash, WordPress.com is not for you. If you want to do ecommerce on the site, WordPress.com is not for you. If you want to put paid ads on your site, WordPress.com is not for you.

If you don't need those things, then I suggest you keep the domain name, as it is always a smart idea to get that, and use the Domain Mapping upgrade to attach it to your WordPress.com blog. See if Bluehost will give you a refund for the hosting which you don't need and the theme which you can't use on a WordPress.com blog.